Customers & Automation

Coach (AI Business Advisor)

Coach (AI Business Advisor)

Get personalised business advice tailored to your role and metrics — Coach is the conversational AI interface within the Concierge that helps Owners grow revenue and manage teams, and helps Staff improve rebooking rates and client experience.

Where to find it — Web: Sidebar → Concierge (Coach redirects to the Concierge page). Mobile: Concierge tab.


Overview

Coach lets you:

  • Ask business questions in natural language and get advice based on your actual venue data
  • Receive role-specific guidance — Owners see marketing, growth, and team management topics; Staff see consultation, skill development, and client experience topics
  • Get data-aware starter questions when your metrics indicate areas for improvement
  • Use the same conversation to transition into Concierge actions (gap fill, reconnect, reviews, etc.)

Note

Coach is part of the Concierge and requires a PRO subscription. Each message costs 1 Spark. See Understanding Spark.


How Coach works

Coach is not a separate feature — it is the conversational aspect of the Concierge. When you open the Concierge and ask a business question, you are using Coach. When the conversation shifts to an operational task, the Concierge may suggest actions.

Accessing Coach

  • Web: Click Concierge in the sidebar. (The old /coach URL redirects to the Concierge page.)
  • Mobile: Tap the Concierge tab. (The old Coach tab redirects to Concierge.)

What Coach knows about your business

Coach has access to your venue's data and adapts its advice accordingly:

For Owners and Managers:

  • Revenue and occupancy metrics
  • Rebooking rates
  • Today's schedule
  • Service list with pricing
  • Business context and history

For Staff:

  • Personal performance metrics (bookings, rebooking rate)
  • Service list
  • Business context

Coach uses this data to provide specific, actionable advice rather than generic suggestions. For example, if your occupancy is low, Coach can recommend specific strategies based on your actual schedule gaps and client base.


Starter questions by role

Owner and Manager topics

Coach suggests questions across four clusters:

Cluster Example topics
Marketing Social media content, colour trends, seasonal promotions, content calendars, before-and-after galleries
Client relations Google reviews, re-engagement strategies, cancellation handling, aftercare advice
Team operations Team meetings, staff retention, performance reviews, onboarding, KPIs
Growth Upselling techniques, pricing strategy, referral programmes, loyalty, increasing ticket value

Staff topics

Cluster Example topics
Consultation Colour consultation scripts, managing expectations, handling unhappy clients, pricing conversations
Skill development Balayage techniques, toner explanations, retail recommendations, colour correction, blow-dry speed
Client experience Upselling naturally, building loyalty, increasing tips, special gestures, time management
Productivity Between-client activities, column efficiency, preparing for tomorrow, filling gaps, daily goals

Data-aware questions

When your metrics indicate an area for improvement, Coach prepends specific questions:

Condition Question shown
Occupancy below 60% (Owner) "How do I fill my empty appointment slots?"
Declining revenue (Owner) "What can I do to boost revenue this month?"
Revenue concentrated on one staff member (Owner) "How do I reduce my dependency on one team member?"
No-show rate above 10% (Owner) "How do I reduce no-shows at my salon?"
Low rebooking rate below 60% (Staff) "How can I improve my rebooking rate?"
Gaps detected tomorrow (Staff) "I have gaps tomorrow — how do I fill them?"

Automation Recommendations

Automation Recommendations is a separate feature that appears on the Engage automations page (not in the Concierge chat). It analyses your venue data and suggests up to 3 automation improvements.

How it works

  1. Go to EngageAutomations on web.
  2. Click "Get recommendations" (or recommendations generate automatically for the page).
  3. The AI analyses your venue's automation settings and customer data.
  4. Up to 3 recommendations appear as cards, each with:
    • A title describing the recommendation
    • An explanation of why it would help
    • An "Apply" button to enable the setting
    • A "Dismiss" button to hide it

Who can use Automation Recommendations

Only Owners can generate, apply, or dismiss automation recommendations. Managers and Staff cannot access this feature.

Fallback behaviour

If the AI is unavailable (Spark balance empty, API timeout), the system provides deterministic recommendations based on rule-based analysis of your current settings — no AI required.


Role access

Action Owner Manager Staff
Chat with Coach (Concierge) Yes Yes Yes
See Owner-level starter questions Yes Yes No
See Staff-level starter questions No No Yes
Transition to Concierge actions Yes Yes Yes (limited)
Generate Automation Recommendations Yes No No
Apply Automation Recommendations Yes No No

Troubleshooting

Issue Solution
Cannot find Coach in the sidebar Coach has been merged into the Concierge. Click Concierge in the sidebar — it is the same feature.
Coach gives generic advice, not specific to my business Coach uses your venue data for context. New venues with fewer than 10 bookings have limited data, so advice may be more generic. As your booking history grows, Coach becomes more specific.
Data-aware starter questions not appearing These questions appear only when specific metric thresholds are met (e.g. occupancy below 60%, no-show rate above 10%). If your metrics are healthy, you will see general topic suggestions instead.
Automation Recommendations not showing Automation Recommendations appear on the Engage → Automations page, not in the Concierge chat. Only Owners can access this feature.
"Upgrade to PRO" message Coach requires a PRO subscription. Owners can upgrade from Settings → Billing.

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Last updated: March 2026